Gracefield GAA Club claim they acted in 'best interest of Faithful County' in DRA appeal

GRACEFIELD GAA Club have claimed that they have acted in the “best interest” of themselves and the “Faithful County” by taking an appeal to the Disputes Resolution Authority over the way scoring difference was applied in their group in the Senior “B” Football Championship – they also claimed that they lodged their appeal “as a matter of principle on the grounds of fairness”.

In a statement released on Tuesday evening, Gracefield outlined the background to their successful appeal, which has resulted in the concluding stages of the Senior “B” Football Championship being delayed by two weeks, a new quarter-final between Clonbullogue and Ballycumber having to take place on September 17 and a new draw for the semi-finals being made after that – Gracefield, Cappincur and Ballycommon will be joined in the semi-finals by the winners of Ballycumber and Clonbullogue.

Gracefield GAA Club have defended their right to take the appeal as far as they did – their decision to proceed so far with it has raised plenty of questions and anger as they had already qualified for the semi-finals by beating Ballycumber in a quarter-final, which was subsequently declared null and void by the DRA.

Gracefield GAA Club mantained: “At all times throughout this entire process, the Club acted in our best interest and that of the Faithful County. With the support of the team, management and club members, we lodged the appeal as a matter of principle on the grounds of fairness.

“We would like to be clear that, from the outset we believe our club has handled this difficult matter with the utmost respect for our county board and fellow clubs.

“It is clear to us that within the GAA, all clubs have the right to question and challenge decisions.We commend the County Board, the DRA and the Leinster Hearings Committee for their action throughout this process and the belief that fairness in paramount in the GAA.

“We wish our Senior Football team and management the very best of luck in the remainder of their Championship

“Gracefield GAA will be making no further comment at this time.”

The DRA ruled last Friday evening in favour of Gracefield GAA club who argued that they should have finished in first position of their SFC “B” group and not in third place according to Offaly's championship regulations – the rule relating to scoring difference had been changed at Congress earlier this year.

The change meant that the scoring difference was only counted from the games involving the three teams who tied in group 2, Gracefield, Clonbullogue and Ballycommon in this case. Under the old rules where scoring difference was counted from all games, Gracefield would have been top and directly in the semi-finals. The new rules, however, meant that Clonbullogue were top and Gracefield third, with Ballycommon second.

The DRA ordered that the 2022 scoring difference rules must be applied.

Gracefield argued that the Offaly GAA championship regulations were not changed to meet the new rules and appealed to Leinster Council, where they lost. They then took their case to the DRA and tried to get the quarter-finals postponed. The DRA ruled that they could go ahead as Gracefield had not met the criteria for interim relief but they stated that they were still entitled to a full hearing of their case.

Gracefield grinded out a hard earned win over Ballycumber in the quarter-finals last Saturday week while Ballycommon beat Walsh Island in the other one – that pairing would have been the same, irrespective of which scoring difference rules were used.

Despite being in the semi-final, Gracefield pursued a full hearing with the DRA and won that case on Friday evening. The semi-finals draw had taken place the previous Monday and fixtures were made for next weekend for Gracefield v Clonbullogue and Cappincur v Ballycommon. These have now been cancelled and the semi-finals will now be on the weekend of September 23-24, the one the final had been fixed for – it will now take place two weeks later.

The County Board received verbal notification of the DRA decision on Friday night and it could be some time before they receive a full written ruling.

Gracefield's statement outlines the background to their case and pointed out that the 2023 Offaly championship regulations stated that simple scoring difference would apply in the event of two or more teams were tied on points. They pointed out that this regulation can only be changed on an annual basis and the national rule change was not communicated to clubs in Offaly after GAA Congress.

After being told they had finished third in the group, Gracefield sought a hearing with the Leinster GAA Hearings Committee and after losing this, they went to the DRA.